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Alabama

Man wants no parole for pedophile he exposed 23 years ago

Updated February 27, 2017 at 8:13 PM;Posted February 27, 2017 at 6:00 AM

BrandonAndCorley.jpg

Brandon Baginski, left, was just a young boy when Don Corley tried to sexually molest him. He said no, and that sparked an investigation that put Corley behind bars for decades.
(Special to AL.com/Alabama Department of Corrections)

Brandon Baginski did something at age 12 that dozens, if not more, young boys before him had been unable to do.

He said, "No."

Baginski said "no" when then 45-year-old Charles Donald "Don" Corley pulled down Baginski's pants and tried to make him a victim. One of many.

"I completely locked up,'' Baginski said in his first interview since he launched the high-profile investigation 23 years ago. "I put my hands over my face and froze. He said we'd get back to this later."

It was the beginning of the end of the abuse for young boys who had fallen prey to Corley. The next year, the 45-year-old respected Boy Scout leader, Trinity United Methodist Church leader, white-collar worker, husband and father was convicted of molesting three boys.

Authorities said he left a trail of abuse over three decades - the 1970s, '80s and '90s - and estimate anywhere between a total of 40 to 120 victims.

Corley was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He comes up for parole again on March 15. Several of his victims set up a website called "30 is 30" with the goal of ensuring Corley serves his full sentence.

In 2012, victim Jason Lee, then 41, spoke in depth with AL.com about his decades-long struggle with the aftermath of Corley's abuse. He had spoken against Corley's release at his parole hearing in 2005, and had helped to launch 30 is 30 in 2012. Corley was denied parole both times.

Baginski is speaking out now in hopes of rallying more support to keep Corley behind bars until the end of his sentence. "I want him away from the community, off the streets for as long as possible," he said, noting that Corley's end of sentence is set for April 2020. "This parole hearing is our last chance to make sure that happens."

Baginski was the best friend of one of Corley's sons. He was raised by a single mother and lived just streets away from the well-respected Corley family. "They (predators) look for boys who have needs, need a mentor, have dysfunction at home,'' he said. "I imagine he saw me at house all of the time thinking I didn't want to be at home, which was far from the truth. My mother is my rock. But he noticed I wasn't around a father a whole lot and he took on that father role. I wasn't a victim he noticed and sought out. I fell on his doorstep."

Corley was good to Baginski. Already divorced, Corley chauffeured the boys to and from church, and drove them to their many activities and outings. "Then he would pick just me up,'' Baginski recalled. "We'd go to dinner, a movie, for ice cream. It started becoming consistent. Ultimately, he was just that trusted."

"Over time, the car rides began to be parking, sitting and talking, a lot of personal things,'' he said. "Movies went from kid movies to PG13 and then to rated R with nudity because he wanted me asking questions about that."

He specifically recalls Corley taking him to the movie "Nell" starring Jodie Foster, in which she is naked in the rain. He used that movie and Jodie Foster to broach the subject of homosexuality. "He had this all set up,'' Baginski recalls.

Even when Corley's own children were gone with their mother, Baginski still spent time with Corley and said neither he nor his mother thought anything was amiss. He was, after all, a respected father figure. Baginski would spend the night at Corley's house and, under the premise of being that father figure, would teach him about sex, puberty, and so forth. One night, he recalls, Corley showed him a Kamasutra book, which was an ancient Hindu publication on sexual behavior. "I wasn't at all enamored with it,'' Baginski said. "Looking back, I knew I wasn't comfortable."

Gradually, Corley began to get more physically intimate. He'd put his arm around Baginski while they were watching a movie, and sometimes lightly touch his face. Then, one night, he broke that barrier by pulling down Baginski's pants.

And that was the end. Baginski cut off all contact with Corley. A week or two later, Baginski was at a doctor's visit with his mother when she asked if he would be riding to church with Corley. When he said no, she asked if something was wrong. Baginski replied, "I hate when he touches me."

"She is a very strong, very smart woman she knew we couldn't do this there,'' he said. When they got home, they talked. She told her son he would never have to see Corley again, and she went to authorities.

Homewood police then launched their investigation, and after only 2 1/2 weeks they charged Corley. Ultimately, three victims pressed charges and in 1995 Corley pled guilty to three counts of sex abuse and sodomy. He got the maximum sentence for each charge, to be served concurrently.

"It didn't take long for him to get arrested and everybody knew,'' Baginski said. "Just not everybody knew I was involved. My name and involvement were kept secret."

It was a lot for a 12-year-old, whose relationship with his very best friend was instantly severed. "We went to school face-to-face together for the next seven years,'' he said. "The hardest things were seeing all of the pain, all of the hurt and knowing that my best friend's dad wasn't there and I had something to do with it. "But I've always seen it for what it was - that I stopped a really bad man."

Baginksi said he had good counseling and was able to move on in many ways. "My story is different because I turned him in, I said no. I stopped it on the front end, so I didn't grow up with the same experience as the other victims,'' he said. "But it's been an undercurrent in different ways in my life."

He said he knew he would one day come forward and tell his story. He just wasn't sure when. "I knew I would use my story to help people,'' Baginski said.

A sports broadcasting engineer who is divorced, Baginski went back to school to get a master's in counseling and completed that degree in December. "What made this change for me, what woke me up, was the Jerry Sandusky case,'' he said. "I do a lot of work for ESPN and I was just watching this, watching the carnage and going back to my experience.

"I was watching the confusion the anger and the pain and I was like, 'I lived this and this is what happened to us. I can help with this.'''

He reconnected with Jason Lee and 30 is 30, and went back and watched a jail interview with Corley that is on the website. "He got off the hook when only three people pressed charges,'' Baginski said. "I was reacquainted with the video recently and it was sickening, to be honest with you."

Baginski, Lee and the others are asking the community to write letters opposing Corley's parole. The letters to Montgomery must be mailed by March 3, and there is information on the 30 is 30 website on how to do so. He said letters opposing the parole have already been submitted by Attorney General Jeff Session's Office, as well as Homewood Mayor Scott McBrayer and State Senator Jabo Waggoner. Michael Johnson, Director of Youth Protection for Boy Scouts of America will attend the hearing, along with other BSA officials. "I don't want the community to have to fear him," he said.

Baginski said he hopes his story will also help victims come forward in other cases. "I know it's scary, but so is not saying anything. It's the only way you can be sure the abuse will stop,'' he said. "It may hurt people that you love, but this person is already doing that by hurting, using you. This is, was not your fault."

"Coming forward gives you the opportunity to begin healing; to take control of your life and body. It will empower you, now and in the future,'' he said. "What is important is that the abuse stops as soon as possible, and that he or she is never allowed to touch or harm you or anyone else again."

Baginski said one out of six boys and one out four girls experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. "You're not alone. I didn't want to tell my parents either,'' he said. "No form of 'unwanted' touch is ever OK. Respond to your feelings; tell someone you trust if something doesn't feel right. If they don't help you, tell someone else. You have a right to be, feel safe."